Diving

16 May

Night Diving in Gili Trawangan

Gili Trawangan offers a large variety of dive sites within a short distance of the island…more than 25 in fact! This makes it one of the easiest places in Indonesia to access great diving. And thankfully the diving adventures don’t have to stop at sundown. You can also dive at night to see all the sites in a totally new light.

Where to dive at night

Pretty much all the dives around the Gili Islands are suitable for night diving, but Meno Wall between Gili T and Gili Meno is an especially great site. The wall here begins at 5 metres and runs all the way down to 16 metres. It’s teeming with a wide variety of crustaceans like coral crabs, sponge crabs and lobsters. You may also see scorpion fish and baby cuttlefish.

Hans Reef off the east side of Gili Air is also a popular spot. Hans Reef is a great dive to find sleeping turtles, bobtail and reef squid, coconut octopus and plenty of sea slugs.

Just north of Hans Reef is Secret Reef where the amazing variety of soft and hard corals make a blanket of colour. The vibrancy is even more breathtaking under torchlight during night dives.

Finally, Coral Basket is a perfect drift dive for beginner divers. This gentle dive takes you over healthy corals that are home to trumpet fish, scorpionfish and ornate ghost pipefish.

There are also sites around Gili Air where you can see mandarin fish spawning at dusk, which can make for the perfect start to a night dive.

Qualms about diving at night

Some people find the thought of diving at night scary or daunting. This is understandable but in reality diving at night can make you more focused and open up a whole new world of diving.

Night dives usually leave around 6pm so you can gear up and get oriented easily before the sun goes down. This easing into the darkness makes it must easier to adjust to the lighting and feel more at ease about getting in the water. There is also the bonus of watching one of those famous Gili Island sunsets from the boat. You won’t believe there is a more beautiful place in the world.

When you dive at night the beam of your torch leads your eyes to specific areas making it easier to see more details and spot creatures you might not see during the day. The excitement of this makes it easy to forget about any of the fears you might have entered the water with.

Get ready to have your eyes opened

Night dive is really like learning to dive in a whole new way. The equipment, techniques and safety procedures are the same but the way you see will change completely.

The tiny details, camouflaged creatures and nocturnal marine life are suddenly right there for you to see under the beam of your torch. You attention is more focused and your senses alive.

Gangga Divers at Villa Almarik are ready to take you on incredible night diving adventures around Gili Trawangan. Are you ready for this new experience?

We love to hear from you and are always curious about your diving experiences. Do you remember your first night dive? Tell us about it in the comments below.